I'm sorry, but any statement, for or against, about an ever deeper union neither agrees nor disagrees with what I've argued in this thread. It is neither the point nor my intention of this thread.



After the crayon metaphor, now the Michigan analogy:
Michigan is culturally obviously different from all of the other 49 states. It doesn't get invaded much by the Union. It is culturally much closer to British commonwealth countries like Canada than to Alabama. Split in half by the Great Lakes (well one of them, but I don't remember which one ), it has a unique geography - which is the cause of Michigan's uniqueness.

This all means that we ought to speak of 'Michigan AND the United States'. And all those unique aspects of Michigan must be taken into account when dealing with the Union. In fact, any Michigan politician who doesn't insist upon them when dealing with non-Michiganese is selling out Michigan to the US. Any opinion an American gives about Michigan is suspect and must be met with due hostility in return.